Harsh parenting was defined as yelling, hitting, and engaging in coercive behaviors like verbal or physical threats as a means of punishment.

The authors looked at kids who were part of a study that examined how social contexts affect performance at school.

More than 1,000 students were followed for more than nine years from 12 years old to around 21.

‘Harsh parenting was related to lower educational attainment’

- Rochelle Hentges

The kids were asked questions about their parents’ physical and verbal aggression, as well as their own relationship with friends and their sexual behavior.

The researchers found kids with harsh parents were more likely to say their friends were more important than their school work, and other responsibilities, like following their parents’ rules.

Those students were also more likely to engage in risky behavior, girls were more likely to have sexual experiences while boys were more likely to get caught up in violence, as they got older.

Lead author Rochelle Hentges, said: “We believe our study is the first to use children’s life histories as a framework to examine how parenting affects children’s educational outcomes via relationships with peers, sexual behavior, and delinquency.”

“In our study, harsh parenting was related to lower educational attainment through a set of complex cascading processes that emphasized present-oriented behaviors at the cost of future-oriented educational goals.”

Ming-Te Wang, an associate professor of psychology at the university, said: “Since children who are exposed to harsh and aggressive parenting are susceptible to lower educational attainment, they could be targeted for intervention.”